SEXIS WRONG

Showing Pink
Paul Krassner
As Penthouse magazine was on its way to bankruptcy, publisher
Bob Guccione said, “The future has definitely migrated
to electronic media.” And Hustler publisher Larry Flynt—who
eagerly joined that migration—has complained, “If you ever
cruise the Net and see everything that’s available, it’s glutted
with sleaze. It’s a nightmare out
there. This has to be affecting the
revenues of people like myself.”
But both have played pivotal
roles in the evolution of popular
pornography. Men’s magazines
had started out showing breasts
but not nipples, buttocks but
not anuses—and never, never a
vagina. Nor did pubic hair used
to be all over the place, only to
eventually get bikini-waxed out of
existence except for occasional
exclamation points. Even nudist
magazines had once airbrushed
men and women into genitaliafree
department-store mannequins playing volleyball.
Nancy Cain
In November 1977, Larry Flynt was flying with Ruth Carter
Stapleton, the evangelist sister of President Jimmy Carter, in
Flynt’s pink private jet, which, when it belonged to Elvis Presley,
had been painted red, white, and blue. Up in the air, Flynt
had a vision of Jesus Christ. Flynt’s entire body was tingling,
and he fell to his knees, clasping his hands in prayer. Thus
was he converted to born-again Christianity.
The next month, at Hustler’s Christmas
party, Flynt announced that I
was going to be the new publisher.
This was the first that I had heard the
news. Before, I had been wondering
how the magazine would change, and
now it turned out that I was the answer
to my own question. For Flynt to
bring me in as redeeming social value
was an offer too absurd to refuse.
Now that Flynt has evolved from a con
artist into an authentic First Amendment
hero—in July 2000, he spoke at
the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco—I
recall what a pariah he was in
Hustler never ran.
1977. In Los Angeles, at the building
in Century City which housed his office,
Hustler was not allowed to be listed in the lobby.
Paul Krassner stands beside his poster of the
“Jesus and the Adulteress” shot that
The great pubic breakthrough occurred in Penthouse in 1971.
A triangular patch of dark, curly hair eventually opened Pandora’s
box wider and wider until Hustler began “showing pink”
in 1974. Even Flynt’s own wife, Althea, showed pink. One
issue featured a scratch-‘n’-sniff centerspread. When you
scratched the spread-eagled model in her designated area, a
scent of lilac bath oil emanated from her vulva.
At the time, I was writing a syndicated column for alternative
weeklies. Specifically, I was working on my “Predictions for
1978,” leading off with this: “Since Larry Flynt has been converted
to born-again Christianity, the new Hustler will feature
a special scratch-‘n’-sniff Virgin Mary.”
“Hey, that’s a great idea,” said Flynt on New Year’s Day at
Nassau Beach in the Bahamas. “We’ll have a portrait of the
Virgin Mary, and when you scratch her crotch, it’ll smell like
tomato juice.” He was rubbing suntan lotion on my back. “I’ll
bet Hugh Hefner never did this for you,” he said.
SHOWING PINK 175